


The Blame Game

by queen_sinnamon



Series: Cherry Gumballs [6]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Angst, Cute, Family, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, The Cha-Jung Household, The End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 10:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7973446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_sinnamon/pseuds/queen_sinnamon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hongbin was shaking beside Ken, and he wrapped an arm around his little brother, rubbing his shoulder soothingly. “It’s okay,” he murmured, and then they both jumped as eomma howled “Liar!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blame Game

**Author's Note:**

> This is it, you guys! The last chapter of Cherry Gumballs. Thank you all so so much for reading our works and staying with us for months as we worked on this piece, and now...wow. Here, we are. Enjoy! ♥

Standing outside their parents' bedroom, eyes adjusting what little light streamed under the crack of their door, Ken and Hongbin flinched when a loud bang echoed from inside.

“Then what is that?” Their father, eomma’s voice, raised in ange that they almost didn’t recognize him. “Explain, Taekwoon, and you better make it good!” They had only ever heard eomma loud when he was laughing or spooked, their bright, sweet father, never angry. He sounded like an entirely different person, a stranger.

Hongbin was shaking beside Ken, and he wrapped an arm around his little brother, rubbing his shoulder soothingly. “It’s okay,” he murmured, and then they both jumped as eomma howled “Liar!”

Hongbin squeaked and Ken’s hand shot up to his mouth to muffle his cries, only then realizing that his brother’s cheeks were wet and warm with tears. Ken’s chest tightened and he wanted to cry too, simply because Hongbin already was, but he couldn’t do that, he knew, willing his tears back. If he did, neither of them would stop crying, so instead Ken hugged Hongbin tightly, pleasantly surprised when he was hugged back, patting his hair as eomma did when he was crying. “It’s okay, it’s okay, we can fix this,” he cooed, copying appa’s words of comfort. He had never done this before, consoling one of his brothers. Usually that was Hongbin, and Ken couldn’t be sure if it was working but he continued cooing and patting the younger boy.

Hongbin sniffled into his shoulder, making a wet spot on his pajama top, but Ken made himself not mind. His brother’s feelings were more important than his pajamas. “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, Ken-hyung,” Hongbin muttered, clutching handfuls of Ken’s shirt. “Eomma’s mad at appa because of me.”

Ken shushed him gently, fingers combing through Hongbin’s curls as eomma would. “It’s okay, Bin-ah, we can fix this. We just have to tell eomma--”

Hongbin stiffened and tried to wiggle out of his arms. “No, no, hyung--Eomma will hate m--I can't--” He was starting to sob again so Ken held on tighter to him, pressing Hongbin’s face to his shoulder, rubbing his back up and down with one hand. “Hyung, I--”

“Don’t touch me!” Eomma’s voice again. He wasn’t yelling anymore, but he still sounded angry, making Hongbin shake all over again.

“Hyung, I’m scared.” Hongbin sounded so small that Ken almost didn’t hear him. He knew there was no way Hongbin would talk to eomma now, so he pat Hongbin’s head a few more times and then loosened his hug, only to take his hand and lead him back to his room. “Hyung?”

Ken didn’t answer, opening Hongbin’s door quietly and nudging his brother into the blue-lit room. The younger boy followed but kept looking back at Ken, terrified eyes turning to confusion. “Hyung?”

Ken tried for his best smile, moving his shaking hands behind him so Hongbin wouldn’t see. He stepped forward to place a kiss on Hongbin’s forehead, just like appa did to them sometimes, not always when they were crying or upset but it always made Ken happy. Maybe it would work on Hongbin too. “Stay here,” he said, and moved to close the door before he could change his mind and hide with Hongbin, but his brother caught his hand on the knob, pulling him back. “Hyung, what are you gonna do?”

_ I don’t know _ , he wanted to say. He really didn’t know. Eomma and appa fixed his and his brothers’ problems, not the other way around. But he couldn’t tell Hongbin that. It would just scare him more. “I got this, okay? I’ll come back later.”

Ken wanted to clap at himself for sounding so brave, and he would have had his hands not been shaking so much, heart threatening to hammer out of his chest. He wasn’t sure if Hongbin believed him, but he finally let go, and Ken closed the door, picking his way in the dark back their parents’ room.

He heard them as he came close, and they were...sobbing? Ken couldn’t believe it. Eomma crying, that he had seen before (when they sent Ken off on his first day to school), but appa...Appa was always so strong. That shirt must have been really important for them to fight and cry over it.

One of the sniffles got just a little bit louder, footsteps nearing the door, and Ken wanted to bolt, run back to Hongbin’s room and try to sleep, hope that it would all be okay in the morning, but somehow he felt that this wasn’t a problem eomma and appa can fix.

Ken swallowed the lump in his throat, willing himself to stay rooted on the spot as the door swung open, the light spilling out from his parents’ bedroom forcing him to look away. There was a gasp, and appa’s voice, ever soft but now sounded so stunned. “Jaehwannie…”

“What?” Ken thought he heard eomma mutter from behind appa, but he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t see him from where he was standing with appa in the way.

Appa had hastily wiped his face with his sleeve when he saw Ken, looking over his shoulder at eomma, before he knelt down to Ken’s height. “Baby, what are you doing here?” Ken caught movement from behind appa and his eyes drifted but appa cupped his cheeks then to keep him focused. “Why are you still up? Is there a problem?”

Ken chewed his lip, unsure what to say as he tried to look through the gap between appa and the door frame and he caught a glimpse of a red-stained shirt on the floor before it was scooped away. He recognized that stain. He had made a couple of it himself on his own shirts, to avoid getting teased by Hongbin and Wonshik, and eomma had only tutted at him when he found them in the laundry. “Kennie, you really have to be more careful with your paints, baby,” was all he had said.

He thought of Hongbin, hiding in his room and scared for eomma and appa, for Ken, and he thought of a few days ago. Maybe, just maybe, if Ken hadn’t been stingy with his candy, Hongbin wouldn’t have ruined appa’s shirt, and eomma wouldn’t be mad, and appa wouldn’t be crying---None of them would be.

_ It’s all my fault. _

He had thought that he would have to fake crying to convince eomma and appa, but the tears came by themselves, welling in his eyes and making his vision blurry. “Appa, eomma…”

And as if summoned by his hiccups, eomma appeared, pushing appa’s hands off of Ken and replacing them with his. That did nothing but push more tears down his cheeks.

“I’m here, baby, I’m here,” said eomma, his voice so unlike the raspy scream Ken had heard earlier. Soft and warm like butter, cooing soothingly at him. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Eomma wiped his tears away with his fingers, but the tears kept coming.

“Eomma, I’m...I’m s-so sorry…” Ken managed to say before he finally burst into sobs.

Eomma pulled him into a hug then, one hand on his head, the other on his back, rubbing comfortingly. “Shh, it’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

Ken shook his head, trying to push away from eomma. He didn’t feel like he deserved a hug. He had been mean to his brothers. He had gotten appa in trouble and made eomma cry. “It’s...it’s not o-okay, eom- eomma…” he said between sniffles.

Eomma tried to pull him back but he shook his head, taking the tiniest step back, and appa, quiet all this time,took his hand but didn’t tug him close. Instead he asked, “What is it, Jaehwan? Why are you sorry?”

Ken felt as if his heart would burst as he told them, haltingly and in between sobs, how he had been playing with his cherry gumballs, painting his lips with the enamel and then wiping it off with whatever he could grab so Wonshik and Hongbin wouldn’t tease him. It wasn’t a complete lie. He  _ had _ done it, more than once.

His fathers had sat down on the floor in front of him, waiting patiently for him to finish. Eomma grew fidgety as he continued, throwing anxious glances at appa, while appa kept his eyes on Ken, quietly encouraging him to go on.

“I didn’t know you’d get mad at appa,” Ken said, a little calmer now and interrupted by a hiccup here and there. “I’m sorry I got your shirt dirty, appa. I won’t do it again.”

His fathers said nothing, looking at him then at one another. Appa looked sad, and angry, like that one time he had told Ken not to run up and down the stairs, but he did and tripped. Eomma had tears in his eyes again, staring at the floor and biting his lip. He looked scared, like...Hongbin, when he told Ken what he did, as if eomma knew he did something bad.

Ken fidgeted, toying with the hem of his shirt and chewing on his cheek, unsure of what to do. He just wanted eomma and appa to stop fighting about the stained shirt. An idea hit him. “I’ll...I’ll help eomma with the laundry for a week-- no, two weeks!” At the disbelieving look they gave him, as if they had forgotten he was there, Ken balked. “I-is that okay? Will you stop fighting?”

They continued staring at him, until eomma’s tears started falling and, when he pulled Ken into a hug again, Ken let him. “Oh, Kennie, my sweet baby, I’m not mad at you, never you,” he cooed, nuzzling against Ken’s hair. Ken felt like crying again, but he fought not to, swallowing the lump in his throat and clinging to eomma instead. Eomma pulled away just so he could cup Ken’s cheeks. “I’m sorry you heard us fight.”

Ken had nothing to say to that. How would he answer eomma or appa apologizing? That was the first time it ever happened.

Appa placed his hand on Ken’s shoulder, gentle but firm. “Thank you for telling us, Jaehwannie,” he said, voice soft but full of pride, like when Ken won 1st place for his art at school, and Ken wanted to shrink. He almost wanted to tell on Hongbin. “You should go to bed now. It’s really late.”

Ken sniffled, looking from eomma to appa and back, wanting to know if they were okay, but then appa gave him  _ the _ look. Reluctantly, he nodded, giving each of his fathers a hug and letting them kiss his forehead.

“Good night, Kennie.” Eomma’s hand lingered on his shoulder as he turned away, walking towards his room.

They had stayed to watch him go, light still spilling into the hallway from their open door. Ken closed his door with a deliberately audible thud but stood by it, ear pressed to the wood, waiting for his parents to leave so he could go to Hongbin.

“Taekwoon...I’m so, so sorry, please forgive me…” Eomma was sobbing again, voice cracking as he spoke, and then he gasped. Ken heard the ripping of cloth and then someone growling, his words unintelligible but unmistakably belonging to appa, his breathy voice veiled by a rasp that made him sound almost like someone else.

“Yes...yes please, love, anything…” Ken thought he heard eomma say, but he couldn’t be sure, and then their door slammed shut.

* * *

Wonshik sat on the edge of his bed, hair ruffled and eyes crusty with sleep. Hongbin lay curled up on his right, head pillowed on Wonshik’s lap.

He had shaken Wonshik awake some time ago, and he had gotten up quickly as he was wont to do whenever Hongbin or he had a nightmare, but as Hongbin stammered an explanation, Wonshik realized that it was so much worse than a nightmare. It was real.

They had sat in the dim blue light of his bedroom, waiting for their eldest brother, and Hongbin had eventually cried himself to sleep, leaving a wet spot on Wonshik’s pajamas, while Wonshik himself got more and more nervous. What was taking Ken so long? Had eomma and appa punished him? The thought clawed at his chest. It hadn’t been Ken’s fault at all, not even Hongbin’s. It had been Wonshik’s all along.

_ It's all my fault. _

He reached under his pillow, careful not to jostle Hongbin, and fished out a small can of mint candy, the tin rattling slightly as its contents rolled inside. When he had refilled it with his own candy--well, his brother’s candy, he had felt so victorious. A little joke, petty revenge at Ken for being so stingy. It was supposed to be a harmless prank.

He didn’t think it would make eomma and appa fight, and scare Hongbin so much, and get Ken in trouble. It was all Wonshik’s fault, he realized as he glared at the little can, and everyone got caught because of him. Well, everyone but Hyuk. Their sweet baby brother was too innocent to get involved in the stupid things they get themselves into, and Wonshik was thankful for that.

“I’m sorry, Bin-ah,” said Wonshik, gently wiping Hongbin’s cheeks with the hem of his shirt, and then combing his fingers through Hongbin’s curls. “I’ll fix this, I promise.”

He heard the doorknob click and he looked up, expecting Ken at his bedroom door, only to turn again as his bathroom door swung open instead. Ken poked his head in, his smile weak, eyes puffy. Wonshik felt like something was squeezing his heart. Poor Ken.

“I knew he’d be here.” Ken sounded exhausted, stepping sluggishly in the room and closing the bathroom door quietly behind him. “Sorry I’m late.”

He crossed the room and sat on Wonshik’s unoccupied side, uncharacteristically careful so he didn’t wake Hongbin. That close, even in the dim light, Wonshik could see how red Ken’s eyes were from crying, and the knot in Wonshik’s chest tightened.

“Ken-hyung…” Wonshik’s voice was shaking, he knew that Ken knew he was about to cry too, so Ken turned immediately to him with a large frown. “Don’t. You. Dare.” 

Crying made Ken grumpy. Sleepiness did too. Together, they didn’t make a good combination. So Wonshik spluttered, choking down a sob and putting on his brave face.

Unfortunately, Ken had unwittingly been louder than he should have been and Hongbin shifted at Wonshik’s right, groaning sleepily. “W-wha…?” Peering blearily up at them until he saw Ken, and his eyes flew open. “Ken-hyung!”

Hongbin nearly threw himself at their eldest, but then balked when Ken turned his glare on him. “I’m sorry…” Hongbin sounded close to tears again, which only made Ken glare more fiercely, hissing, “No! No more tears!”, which only made Hongbin whimper.

He was always the stronger one of them, and seeing him always close to crying made Wonshik feel protective over him, steeling his resolve to come clean. “Stop it, Ken-hyung,” Wonshik said, raising his arm defensively between Hongbin and Ken. “It’s not his fault.”

Even in the dark, Wonshik saw Ken bristle and, before he could open his mouth to rant, Wonshik grabbed Ken’s hand and put the half-empty mint can in his palm.

Startled, Ken stared at the can, eyes wide, and then suspiciously at Wonshik and back. “What’s this? You’re not buying me with food again,” he said, holding the can an arm’s length away, and Wonshik pushed it back to him with a groan.

“It’s not Hongbin’s fault,” he insisted.

Ken gave him another dubious look, bringing the can up to his ear and shaking it a little, checking if it was something alive. 

Wonshik had to bite his lip to keep from yelling at Ken to just open it. He might have if Hongbin hadn’t squirmed at his side, tugging at his sleeve, and his frustration with their eldest melted as he hugged the other. “It’s okay, I’ll take care of it,” Wonshik mumbled. Hongbin didn’t look convinced, but he nodded anyway, trusting Wonshik completely.

When nothing cried out or squeaked from inside the can, only the rattling of several somethings, did Ken open it, facing away from him in fear that something would pop out or spring at him. Wonshik wanted to complain, but then again he was also reminded of the many times he and Hongbin had given him prank peanut brittle cans.

Ken finally hazarded a look in the can, and Wonshik knew what he was seeing. Several red gumballs rolling in the bottom of the can, its fruity smell now sickly sweet in Wonshik’s nose. Ken was quiet, staring uncomprehendingly at the candy, as Wonshik and Hongbin waited with baited breath for him to say something.

A moment passed, and then another, and Ken still hadn’t moved or said a word. “Hyung?” Wonshik was starting to worry that Ken had fallen asleep, reaching out to wake him, when he slowly put the can aside, closing it with a sigh, eyes pinched. “Hyung?”

In hindsight, maybe Wonshik should have done what Hongbin did, crawling off the bed and hiding behind the headboard, but then if he had, they both would have taken what came next.

Suddenly the eldest Cha-Jung threw himself at Wonshik, wrestling him to the mattress, his grunts muted. Wonshik would have screamed himself, but then choked it down, afraid their parents would come running.

Ken grabbed the nearest pillow and started whacking the younger with it, Wonshik crossing his arms over his face in defense. “Dumb”-- _ whack!-- _ ”Stupid”-- _ whack!-- _ ”Dongsaeng!” Every word punctuated with a dull smack.

Wonshik knew he could have easily pushed Ken off, held his arms down, but then he would get angrier and start yelling, or worse wailing. Wonshik would rather be pommeled with a pillow.

“I’m sorry, hyung! I’m really sorry!” Wonshik pleaded, peaking from the sides of his arms to give Ken his best puppy eyes, and got another series of whacks in reply.

“You”-- _ whack!-- _ ”better”-- _ whack!-- _ ”be!”-- _ whack! _

“I am, I am! I’m sorry!” And he was. He truly was. 

He had thought it was going to be like any other joke they often played at one another. He didn’t think it would get this bad, that it would upset all of them so much. He never meant to hurt anyone, he never wanted to hurt any of them.

But he had, and it brought tears to his eyes more than Ken smacking him with a pillow did. Arms raised to shield him from Ken’s assault now pressed to the upper half of his face to stop his tears (it didn’t work), teeth gritted tight to keep his sobs in.

And then Ken was being dragged off of him, hissing and kicking, “Lemme go, Bin-ah! Lemme at him!”, drowning out all other sounds in the room, until eventually he stopped.

The longest few minutes in which Wonshik sobbed quietly and Ken panted for breath. When Wonshik sat up, wiping at his tears with the back of his hands, he realized Ken was sitting across his bed and glaring at him, a pair of arms tight around his waist and Hongbin’s head of curls pressed on his shoulder.

He spat threats under his breath--stealing his desserts forever, putting bugs in his dresser--and he might have spouted worse had Wonshik not launched himself at him, sandwiching Ken between him and Hongbin.

That close to his brothers, Wonshik only then heard Hongbin muttering repeatedly, “We’re sorry, hyung, we’re really sorry.”

Wonshik promptly copied him, pressing his face to Ken’s neck and wrapping his arms around both his brothers so they were all squished together. He didn’t really have anything more to say than sorry.

Breathing hard and stubbornly fighting (and failing) his tears, Ken hugged Wonshik back with one arm, his free hand reaching up his shoulder to pull sharply at Hongbin’s curls before patting them down. “Next time, you ask, okay?” he said, still souding huffy, but Wonshik knew from that that they were forgiven.

Wonshik and Hongbin nodded, squeezing Ken between them until he squawked indignanntly, and they fell over on Wonshik’s bed in a giggling heap.

* * *

Ken groaned as he tugged on his and Hyuk’s laundry basket, trying to drag it from his room to the basement.

Eomma had assigned him to just collecting his and his brothers’ laundry and then later to hanging up finished clothes to dry, but it was so hard. How could clothes be so heavy? Only then did he regret staining so many of his shirts with paint.

Then suddenly Hongbin was at his side, rolling his eyes as he took hold of Hyuk’s basket. “Stop slacking, hyung,” he said, and then Wonshik was at his other side, giggling. They were both dragging their own baskets with their free hands, and together they pulled at Ken and Hyuk’s too.

Ken dug his heels to the floor, only succeeding in slowing them down instead of stopping them, as he looked around in panic. “Yah! You’ll get scolded too, stop it!” he said, relieved to find that eomma and appa were nowhere nearby.

Hongbin shrugged as if nonchalantly though he looked away sheepishly. “We already did.”

Ken stood still then. “What?”

Wonshik let go of his baslet to scratch nervously at the back of his neck. “We told them.”

Ken stared at them, dumbfounded, before smacking them both playfully on the shoulders. “You just can’t let me be the hero!”

Wonshik only giggled and Hongbin snorted, rolling his eyes again. “Nope.”

“You’re jerks,” Ken said, pouting and then giggling as he took hold of the baskets again, pulling so Wonshik and Hongbin followed suit. “Where’s eomma and appa now?”

Wonshik tilted his head toward their parents’ room. “Napping. They’re tired, they said.”

“We can play but don’t wake Hyogie,” Hongbin added.  “Or fight.” Wonshik and Hongbin nodded solemnly at that, and they all paused, making varying faces of horror, before bursting into laughter.

Cherry Gumballs had almost torn their family apart, but in the end it had brought them all that much closer.  Still, Ken wasn’t buying any more of it ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> And we're done!  
> I hope y'all enjoyed the ride from Cherry Gumballs up to here, and I hope you're all as satisfied with it as we are. It had been a really fun adventure, this entire series. Perhaps someday we'll have another one, yeah?
> 
> Let us know what you think! We'd be so happy to hear from you. (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)
> 
> -
> 
> Thank you for reading! ♥  
> If you enjoyed, liked, or loved this story, please let us know by leaving a comment, kudos, or a little gift to us through [here](http://paypal.me/ChaJungPiggybank)\--Please do note if it's a gift for the Cha-Jung Household. ♥
> 
> We're not requiring you to do any of that, it's completely up to you. We would just be very thankful for any and all kinds of feedback.
> 
> Have a nice day! ♥


End file.
